Kejriwal govt orders probe into ‘leak’ of LG’s order on AAP ad spending

The Delhi government has ordered an inquiry, including examining call details of suspected staff, who might have “leaked” copies of Lt Governor’s order on recovery of Rs 97 crore from the AAP for ads spendings.

It has also ordered examining of the call details of suspected staff who might have “leaked” the copies of the same.

The Delhi Cabinet had last month directed Chief Secretary M M Kutty to find out the source behind the leak and examine the call details of relevant staff members and visitors’ register.

“Chief Secretary will conduct an inquiry to ascertain as to how the copies of file notings in which the LG had directed recovery of Rs 97 crore from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were leaked to the media.

“If needed, call details of relevant staff members and visitors’ register etc may be examined to find out the source of the leak,” the Cabinet order accessed by PTI said.

Lt Governor Anil Baijal had last month directed the Chief Secretary to recover Rs 97 crore from AAP that was allegedly “splurged” by the Delhi government on advertisements in violation of the Supreme Court guidelines.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said that the LG’s order will be challenged in the court.

Apart from this, the Delhi Cabinet had also directed the Chief Secretary to present a complete list of all the files sent by him (on subjects other than police, law and order, services) directly to the Lt Governor bypassing respective ministers and quote the law under which the files were sent and the reason for bypassing the ministers.

Last year on the direction of the Supreme Court, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had formed a three-member committee, headed by former Chief Election Commissioner B B Tandon, to address issues related to content regulation in government advertising.

In its report, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had said that the AAP government had spent Rs 29 crore in releasing advertisements outside Delhi which was “beyond” its responsibility.

The report, tabled in the Delhi Assembly on March 10, also said that advertisements worth Rs 24 crore were released by the AAP government in violation of the financial propriety and the Supreme Court regulations.

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